Weld County runners accounted for in Boston Marathon explosions

Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Sheldon Stadnyk read with excitement the text message from his daughter.

"I'm very proud of my time," Dawn Mathis told her father after completing her second Boston Marathon in 3 hours and 40.25 minutes.

Not long after, he heard the television announcement. Two explosions had taken place at the finish line of a race that Stadnyk knows well.

"That was the last thing I heard from her," said the chief medical officer for North Colorado Medical Center. In less than an hour, Stadnyk went from elated to terrified.

It didn't take too long for Stadnyk to learn his daughter was OK, but it seemed like forever, he said.

"It takes forever to get through that line," he said about the queue from which runners exited the race. "They drape you in a Mylar blanket and move you through to get you hydrated and something to eat. It is so crowded around there. She was within a block when the bombs went off."

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Stadnyk didn't hear from his daughter right away because she didn't even know for sure what was going on until she returned to her hotel.

Two simultaneous explosions at the 117th annual Boston Marathon about 100 yards apart killed three and injured more than 130 others, with many of those losing limbs.

At least nine Weld County entrants ran in Monday's race, which is the Super Bowl for runners. All nine were accounted for, but clearly shaken.

Some were unable to be reached because of jammed phone lines, some were not ready to talk about their experiences, and others were just thankful for their lives.

Two former Greeley residents, Steve Monroney and Heidi Hurst, also ran in the race. Monroney recently moved to the Denver area, but still runs for Bell's Running, and Hurst, a Greeley West graduate, is attending Harvard University.

Stephenson lined up just behind the professional runners, waiting anxiously to start an event he'd dreamed of participating in since he was in high school.

"I was looking around at these other runners," he said. "They were all well fit. It looked like a bunch of thoroughbred horses at the Kentucky Derby. All I could think of was, 'Am I at the right place?' "

For the 2 hours, 49 minutes and 1 second it took the 26-year-old to finish the Boston Marathon, he was.

Just a couple hours later, however, those crossing the finish line experienced something unimaginable.

"It is a very sad day," Mathis said from her hotel room Monday evening. "It took 10-12 minutes to even hear sirens. There are so many streets closed off and so many people, we didn't know what had happened. It was very loud, but we thought it might have just been an electrical explosion or something. When we came back to the hotel, there were people in the lobby with the local Boston news on."

Hours after things seemed to calm down, Mathis said she was still a bit worried.

"We are on the 27th floor," she said. "We were allowed to go up and down, but we didn't for the first couple of hours. We just stayed in the lobby because we wanted to be able to hear right away if we needed to evacuate. We didn't want to hear it from the 27th floor."

Stadnyk, who ran in 10 consecutive Boston Marathons from 2000-09, said what was supposed to be a day of excitement turned into another day in American history.

"There is a rage and anger …" Stadnyk said. "As a human, I'm shocked. As a physician my heart goes out to those lost. As a runner, this is very scary. We train all year for the Boston Marathon. But no one can train for something like this. What a great race. What a great tradition. My fear is it's going to (deter) people for whom this is the pinnacle of their career."

Adams is employed in the athletic department at the University of Northern Colorado. UNC officials said she and her husband, John, were unharmed and that Adams was three-tenths of a mile from the finish line when the race was called.

Bittner declined to comment. The marathon's website had the 39-year-old finishing the race about one hour before the explosions.

A third member of the Bell's Running team, Damrell, was also OK, according to Andy Eberhard, Bell's Running manager.

Hurst's mother, Patty Mayer, posted on her Facebook page that Hurst was at mile 25.7 when the explosion happened. She is fine, as are all her friends and family that were with her, the post said.

Skiba had just crossed the finish line, picking up her personal things, when the blast went off behind her.

"I heard the explosion; I looked," she said. "There was lots of smoke, lots of people running. The place was chaos."

Skiba hurried the other way trying to get around barriers. She crossed the finish line 13 minutes before the first explosion went off at 2:50 p.m.

The 50-year-old spoke by phone from the Westin Copley Place hotel where she was waiting with her boyfriend, Dan Reinhardt, and other evacuees to return to her hotel located in the evacuated area of the city.

Stephenson said the mood in Boston was surreal.

"Everyone is still shaken up. It was just so unexpected," he said. "I'm not sure if everything has sunk in yet. Right now, I'm just feeling very grateful because you realize these devices could have gone off at anytime.

"I feel for everyone involved. It makes the race very insignificant when something like this happens."

Mathis agreed, adding it was a sad night in a town that is usually revelling in Patriot's Day celebration on this day each year.

"It is so sad in so many ways that someone would do this," she said as she looked out of the window of her hotel room overlooking Boylston Street, which is the main street for the event and usually busy with people. "There is no one on the street. It is a bummer. It is just a wonderful event."